“COME GATHER ‘ROUND PEOPLE. WHEREVER YOU ROAM”
Pat DeLeon, Ph.D.
April 2, 2025
A Fascinating and Most Timely Experience:
The Association of Jewish Psychologists (AJP) has been, for several months, planning a Mission Trip to Israel, that would be focused on the treatment of trauma and the generation of resiliency. Lenore Walker, a co-founder of AJP along with Beth Rom-Rymer, was selected as a Voice of the People (VOP) Council Member in 2025, by Israeli President Isaac Herzog. The 150-member VOP Council, from around the world, met in Haifa, March 2nd – 6th , 2025. The purpose of the prestigious Council was to generate opportunities to “create and lead change” in areas affecting Jewish people “on issues that they care about.”
Beth: “Lenore and I agreed that planning an AJP trip to Israel, that would immediately follow the March meeting of the Voice of the People Council, would be timely. We then scheduled the AJP trip for March 9th – 16th. While Lenore and Shayna Davis (AJP Secretary) took the lead in planning the trip, other AJP Executive Committee members (Ester Cole and Sarah Landau Friedman), in addition to myself, were also vitally engaged. Fourteen additional AJP members, from around the world: the U.S., Canada, South Africa, and Israel, joined us.
“What we created was a superb study of trauma treatment strategies, that included the reinforcement of resilience in Israeli citizens and citizen-soldiers. Their trauma experiences have been driven by family, national, and international history, as well as, most recently, by the October 7th Hamas massacre; the ongoing war between Israel and Hamas; and the tortuous wait for the return of the 24 living (but terribly physically and psychologically compromised) hostages and the remains of the approximately 34 dead hostages.”
Lenore: “We were able to plan a program that offered CE credits to practitioners who attended the lecture and discussion sessions as well as visited university and independent resilience centers where we observed both the methods being used as well as the outcome measures analyzed by other mental health professionals who were incredibly generous with their time and knowledge. It was important to them, as well as to us, that we stand as witnesses to the horror, that began on October 7th and continues, to this day.”
Beth: “The Outstanding speakers included: Merav Roth, psychoanalyst on the faculty of Education in the Department of Counseling and Human Development (ECHD), at The University of Haifa. She was one of the first mental health professionals to meet with the survivors of the October 7th Hamas massacre. As soon as she had realized the enormity of the devastation, she drove down to the south of Israel, where the survivors had been given shelter and food in hotels. (Many of the survivors continue to live in hotels, with several family members in just one room.) Although she had planned to stay with the survivors for only a short time, she stayed with them for over three weeks, helped organize a cadre of other Israeli psychologists to help, and has continued to stay involved with the psychological treatment of the survivors, family members, and returned hostages. Her narratives of the survivors’ experiences were harrowing.
“Also on the faculty of ECHD at the University of Haifa, Yael Enav and Yael Meir spoke with us. They have developed a play-based intervention to foster mental health and resilience among displaced parents (especially parents who had to leave their families to go to the war front) and their young children. They have conducted outcome research on their work and have implemented their successful treatment model in communities around the country.
\“In Jerusalem, we met with Guila Benchimol, a criminologist, consultant, educator, and victim advocate, who works with abuse survivors, faith institutions, and leaders, around the globe, to prevent and address sexual violence and other abuses of power. Also on her panel, we heard from Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) attorney Colonel (Reserve) Sharon Zagagi Pinhas. She is the former chief military prosecutor of the IDF and is an expert on crime victims’ rights. Colonel Zagagi Pinhas is the co-initiator and co-founder of the Dinah Project, in which she leads efforts to secure international acknowledgment and legal justice for the victims of conflict-related sexual violence (CRSV) on October 7th and those still in captivity, developing and promoting new legal frameworks that close existing gaps in prosecuting CRSV.
“We heard Ayelet Harel, professor of Political Science at Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, talk to us about the women soldiers who were the first to notify the government about an impending Hamas attack. Unfortunately they were not believed by their command officers. We heard Ruth Halperin-Keddari, internationally renowned legal scholar; the former Israeli representative and Chair of the UN Security Council’s Commission of Inquiry; and a full professor on the faculty of Law at Bar-Ilan University’s Reichman Institute, talk about the paucity of international attention to the sexual violence to the victims of the October 7th massacre and the continuing sexual violence to the Israeli hostages, imprisoned by Hamas. She is one of the co-authors of a report detailing the evidence of the weaponization of sexual abuse as a means of war, not just the aftermath that often occurs. We resonated to the silence of the feminist community to Israeli pain.
“In all, we heard from over 33 trauma experts; visited resiliency centers and retreats; spent an evening at Hostage Square, listening to Israeli songs of peace and yearning, and hearing urgent pleas from hostage family members and former hostages, to bring home the remaining hostages; spent a day, in the south of Israel, paying our respects to the victims of the Nova Festival site and of the kibbutzim destruction; we visited the Yahalom IDF military base and had the opportunity to walk down into a narrow, dark, dark tunnel, built as a replica of the tunnels that Israeli soldiers and hostages have had to endure for weeks and months. We witnessed the joy of the street celebrations of the Festival of Purim.
“Being in Israel, during this fraught time, was inspiring, exceptionally informative, and gave us profound insights into the resilient spirit of the Israeli people and the resourcefulness of a nation that has never been free of military threats to its very existence.”
An Important and Highly Strategic Priority:
Earlier this year, the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine (NASEM) released A New Vision for Women’s Health Research: Transformative Change at the National Institutes of Health. Former Senior Hill Colleague Sheila Burke co-edited this visionary report which, not surprisingly, contained a number of references for the need for focusing upon mental and behavioral health issues. In 1993, Congress passed the National Institutes of Health (NIH) Revitalization Act codifying the importance of including women in research and establishing the NIH Office of Research on Women’s Health. Thirty years later, this report found: “In countless ways, NIH has made important advances, including implementing a policy requiring that NIH-funded research consider sex as a biological variable and investing in innovative and breakthrough research that has saved the lives of and improved treatment options for many women. Despite this progress, major gaps remain that must be addressed if our national research enterprise is to significantly drive progress to improve the health and well-being of women in this country.”
The NASEM Committee proposed that the nation needs a bold new approach in addition to doubling the NIH investment in women’s health research (WHR). Further, three major structural elements are needed to address the persistent gaps in research: (1) A new WHR Institute to provide a home for the study of health conditions that predominately or exclusively affect women and greatly impair the quality of millions of women’s lives. (2) A major new interdisciplinary WHR fund, modeled on the NIH’s Common Fund, to catalyze interdisciplinary research in women’s health. And, (3) A sustained commitment and prioritization by the current Institutes and Centers to conduct research that examines sex and gender differences and women’s health.
The Committee pointed out that despite having a longer life expectancy than men, women spend more years living with a disability and in poor health. On average, a women will spend nine years in poor health, 25% more time than men. Starting in adolescence, there are conditions specific to the experiences of women and girls, and the knowledge gap regarding them fails both women and their health care providers. Further, women who are racially and ethnically minoritized, are economically disadvantaged, live in rural areas, or identify as belonging to sexual and gender minority groups experience a disproportionate burden of disease and adverse outcomes, including violence, autoimmune diseases, mental illness, maternal morbidity and mortality, and cancer. In the committee’s judgement, these inequities are in large part a result of structural factors and lack of access to positive social determinants of health that remain largely understudied and underreported in biomedical research.
The Commonwealth of Virginia – Home of the 1980 Landmark Virginia Blues Success Thanks the Vision of Former APA President “Dr. Bob” Resnick:
James Morris, Chair VACP RxP Committee: “Senate Bill 752, the prescriptive authority (RxP) ‘Study’ bill of the Virginia General Assembly, developed by the Virginia Academy of Clinical Psychologists (VACP), was signed into law on March 24th by Governor Glenn Youngkin. The bill requires the Virginia Boards of Psychology and Medicine, ‘to study the education, training that… clinical psychologists receive in the area of pharmacology and assess under what conditions it may be appropriate for clinical psychologists to be granted prescriptive authority.’ The bill requires that two university clinical psychology department faculty and two psychiatry department faculty, along with one representative from the VACP and one from the psychiatric society serve as core participants in the study. The results are required to be submitted to the legislature in November 2025, prior to the next legislative session.
“Having had the chance during the recent General Assembly session to lobby heavily for SB 752 has enabled the VACP leadership and RxP Committee members to develop strong contacts with many of the Members and their staffs, and to have a head start with developing necessary PAC resources. The RxP committee members of the VACP are looking forward to using the study as a warmup to the next Session, where it’s hoped that the actual RxP bill will be passed.”
We Shall Dearly Miss Our Colleague:
In January, APA President Debra Kawahara presented a Posthumous Presidential Citation to Norman Abeles in recognition of his lifetime devotion to APA and the field of Psychology. “Norman Abeles, PhD, had an illustrious career in psychology, significantly contributing to the field and the American Psychological Association (APA). His dedication to advancing public awareness of psychology and applying psychological principles to social issues is commendable. Holding numerous leadership positions, including APA President in 1997, he was instrumental in the establishment of a continuing APA Committee on Aging and the development of the APA Guidelines for the Evaluation of Dementia and Age-Related Cognitive Decline.
“His long-standing service of over 25 years on APA’s Council of Representatives (representing Divisions 12, 20, 39, and 42); on various APA boards and committees (including the Ethics Committee, Committee on Aging, Board of Educational Affairs, Publications and Communications Board, and Policy and Planning Board); as President of several APA Divisions and the Michigan Psychological Association; and Board of Trustees member of the American Psychological Foundation highlights his commitment to the profession. Receiving the 2010 APA Award for Distinguished Senior Career Contributions to Psychology in the Public Interest further underscores his impact.
“As a visionary leader in APA’s publication arena, he uniquely appreciated the importance of practice and science working collaboratively towards common goals. His hands-on journal editorship, constant mentoring, and boundless optimism were truly transformational.
“Norman may have appeared subdued in his presentation, small in stature, and gentle in character, but interactions with him revealed a profound depth of knowledge, unwavering conviction, insightful wisdom, and visionary leadership.
“Dr. Abeles’ work, especially in promoting the importance of aging within psychology, is truly inspiring. In recognition of his lifetime devotion to APA and the field of psychology, APA honors Dr. Norman Abeles with this posthumous Presidential Citation. He will be dearly missed.” “And the first one now. Will later be last” (Bob Dylan, The Times They Are A-Changin’). Aloha,
Pat DeLeon, former APA President – Division 29 – April, 2025